Dollies, trolleys and permanently mounted wheeled supports have long been used to assist people in manually moving and manipulating heavy objects such as furniture, boats, trash cans, large musical instruments and the like. Exemplary of such devices are those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,551,040, 2,953,387, 2,960,347, 3,105,698, 4,029,327, and 4,596,397. Typically, those of the fixedly attachable type comprise a support frame movably supported on a pair of wheels together with means for securing the device to a lower portion of the load such as to a dependent flange. The dolly types, which are not fixedly secured, have commonly had an upright back support mounted to wheels with a short bottom flange or foot formed at a right angle to the upright support. By placing the bottom of a load on the foot and tilting the dolly so that a side of the load rests against the upright support, the load may be lifted from a supporting floor for movement.
In most of the fixedly mounted type devices shown in the aforementioned patents the load supported by them, though heavy enough to need wheeled assistance, have been relatively small. Exemplary of such loads are garbage cans, trash bags and bass violin cases. They have commonly been secured to the load by the use of wrenches used to draw coupling members together or apart. Since the loads have not been exceedingly large, the support devices have been normally designed only to support their bottom surface.
Dollies, on the other hand, which are not designed to be fastened to loads, are well suited for those situations that require the movement of a number of large articles to each of which they are only mounted individually for a brief period of time while being moved. For example, professional movers may use one or two dollies for a job that requires may articles to be moved. Dollies heretofore have had to be versatile and to be readily mountable and dismountable to various articles of various sizes, shapes and weights. Many of the prior art type of dollies are ill suited for the task. This is because many do not provide sufficiently stable support in that they support only the bottom surface of the load and not their sides. To use the other fastenable type of devices however would mean having to use tools to mount and dismount them to each article. This would be a time consuming task and would incur the risk of marring or scratching the articles. Furthermore, since dollies are normally available only in some two or three sizes, their size is selected as a compromise in order to accommodate loads of average weight and size. Thus, for very large loads it has sometimes occurred that professional movers have had to use two dollies for a single article which is difficult to do effectively and without creating a hazardous situation.
Accordingly, it is seen that a need has long existed for a dolly which can be readily mounted and dismounted to sizable loads without the need of tools and yet which can provide ample support to both the bottom and sides of loads and to loads of different sizes. It is to the provision of such a dolly that the present invention is primarily directed.